Realistic or Modern The City of Maple Pines || (Open and Accepting!)

[takki]

"Hello, hello, hellllooooo Maple Pines! This is your DJ, here to bring you the latest news happening across the city as well as the whole world!" The DJ said with liveliness, enthusiasm and happiness. "Last night, three criminals that escaped from the jail three days ago just robbed the WorldTree Bank! The police on the bank was beaten up like stuffed dolls. But then, one hour before sunrise, the criminals have been caught on a condominium just a few blocks from the unfinished Maple Park, which is at the center of our city."

In the morning, street vendors were already setting up their stalls. The shops were opening early. The tourists were up already and started to explore the city. There were already light traffic on the roads, but otherwise, the whole city was fine. The DJ continued to speak after a short pause, "Speaking of the Maple Park, it just opened! News just arrived ten seconds ago. Time check is 6:02 in the morning, brought to you by, of course, your ever-favorite DJ! Anyways, that is all for today! Hello and good-morning!"

Veltsu VI Aminora J Johannes Crystal Cali aliara.s Susanoo Verdance Jakiro Susanoo Tori Bradley
The RP has started! You guys can now start once you finish your cs ^^

OOC
Character Sheets
Interest Check

 

[Veltsu VI]

Hanah Solo and Fayette Vahdin

Hanah waked when her radio turned on and DJ started speaking. Fayette had set radio go on at morning. Hanah get up and dressed up, she and her sister lived in small house that had abandoned, there was warning signs of water damage and mildew and other homeless stay away from it, but Hanah didn't know how to read and Fayette hadn't understand all words so they had just moved there. Hanah had small generator to produce small amount electricity that she used to radio, lights, microwave oven and refrigerator, that was nearly empty. Hanah had all taked apart and build back together, fixing them same time. Hanah had couple other projects waiting on table that she had founded from refuse dump.

After dressing up Hanah knocked to Fayette's room's door.
"Morning, Fay!" Hanah opened door and looked in.

Fayette was lying in bed still.
"Let me sleep quarter yet, big sister."
Fayette mumbled
"Sleep then, i be in my room." Hanah walked back in her room and started cleaning cylinders at engine that she was working.

After half hour Fayette exited from her room and walked in kitchen. After checking that bread was eatable she made couple sandwiches to herself and to Hanah.
"Big sis, breakfast!"
Hanah walked to kitchen and taked sandwich, both started eating.
"I heard that there's some park opened Fay, Interested to see it?"
"Okay, but we need get more foodstuffs too."
"So after park to market?"
Fayette nodded. When both had finished their sandwiches they leaved from house and started heading to park.

(Yes i edited whole thing as i get last night idea of make one character more and takki approved age)​

 

[Johannes]

Lucas Artz

Mood: Another day...
Location: En route to pharmacy (work place), walking past Maple Park
Tags: None yet

Beep beep...beep beep...beep beep...Lucas' eyes slowly opened as his alarm clock goes off. Sighing, he turned the alarm of and sluggishly got out of bed. Lucas got into his usual routine; eating breakfast, changing, getting ready for work, etc. After changing his clothes, Lucas checks his phone for any new messages. Ah, a request for some classic paralyzing poison. Perhaps the client wanted it for kidnapping. Perhaps it is for something far more sinister. Whatever the reason, Lucas didn't care as long as he got paid. Lucas took a mental note of the appointment for this evening.

Stepping out of his home, Lucas began to walk to work. It was only a 20 minute walk and Lucas decided that a daily walk would do well to keep in him moderately fit. One would think that they could enjoy the city-scape as they walked along the path, but such sights played no role in the amusement of Lucas. Only two things entertain The Apothecary: producing new products for his trade and seeing them tested. Unfortunately, live human testing doesn't occur frequently. The last subject was a homeless man, passed-out drunk on Lucas' doorstep last week. He sighed wistfully at the thought of a new subject to test on as he walked past the recently opened Maple Park.[/side][/side]

 

[takki]

[border]Daniel McVereDaniel just finished typing a short book, which has a total of 70 pages. The title of the book was 'A Dragon's Tale', and he's going to distribute the book's existence using a hired agent. Anyways, he started typing on midnight with a cup of coffee and an apple. The perfect meal to do an all-nighter. Sometimes, he'd stare at his condominium window and look at the peaceful night in this beautiful city. But sometimes, he'd see people jumping on the rooftops, people holding a handgun, and one night, when he stared at the window, he saw a man holding a grenade. He didn't panic at that moment but he was nervous from the inside.

Anyways, when he was finished typing, his head fell from his keyboard and his eyes to his head. And then, just as about he was to drift into a sleep, the radio turned on. He normally set his radio to automatically turn on every 6:00 in the morning as his alarm and also to listen to the DJ's night news. "Ugh, man. Really..." Daniel groggily muttered. He stood up and gone to the wash basin to brush his teeth. After that, he brewed his favorite coffee and drank it before he could run around the newly opened Maple Park.

After Daniel suited up in his jogging outfit, which are a white t-shirt, long jogging pants and gloves for no reason, he ran to the Maple Park. He wondered how far it was going to be from his condo, but he estimated it would take 10 minutes.

<Open>
[/border]

 

[SirGrey]

Owen Wright
​

Owen slammed down his landline phone with an exasperated anger. This person had been complaining about a recent job that Owen was hired for. Apparently, this man's wife had been going missing for long periods and when Owen found the obvious refused to believe and more importantly refused to pay. "Some people" Owen muttered as he slumped back into his desk chair. His ruffled suit reflected the man's mood at this point. He mussed over the room with his ever sharp eyes, a pile of letters and takeaway leaflets by his door the wallpaper that probably needs redoing, the kitchen with actually washed pots and the bin of takeaway boxes showing how little the plates get used. Getting up from his chair, Owen closed a hidden compartment under the floorboards that must have been left open. A compartment with a gas mask and odd looking gun inside.

Deciding to clear his head, he grabbed his coat and left his apartment/office for a nearby park that recently opened. Putting a lit cigarette to his lips, the detective lets a cloud of smoke as he leisurely walks over to the park. He wasn't foolish to believe that he wasn't addicted but he was foolish enough to believe that he could keep it in check. However, after the morning Owen had on the phone he felt like he could do with this treat. Once he made it to the park, Owen was already on his second cigarette, the lighting of which completely distract him from a nearby jogger, who he crashed into. Nearly dropping both cig and lighter the detective goes to help the man up saying, "Sorry fella didn't see you there"
takki

 

[takki]

[border]Daniel McVere
Daniel sometimes unconsciously close his eyes while jogging towards the Maple Park. The sky was clear today, with the wind blowing in his hair. His senses were downed to zero and his sight and hearing can only operate faintly. When he already arrived at the Maple Park, he closed his eyes while jogging and hit someone. His fell face-first on the cement. He looked up and accepted the help of the man. "Its okay, no harm done." Daniel said even though his face aches a bit.

"I should've slept last night." He muttered as he continued to jog and started to circle the newly opened park. He stopped for a bit to inspect the scenery. It was a nice, big park, with a fountain on the middle. The grass felt humid as he touched its surface. There were also a bridge with a river running below it. The sun finally rose, the light touching his face.

Daniel again continued to circle the park until he almost bumped on a kid trying to catch a butterfly. "Definitely should've slept last night." He cursed himself. Now that the sun shone in his eyes, he stopped himself from falling asleep while jogging or he would've looked like a total idiot that passed out in the middle of the Maple Park.

SirGrey [/border]

 

[Crystal Cali]

Celestia Bird​

Celeste was up bright and early this morning, already brushing through wet hair when the radio show began to play. Celeste had been planning to do some street performances in the park, and hopefully capture the attention of someone rich with a stage she could perform a full show on. Not that Celeste was hard-pressed for work, but being proactive certainly gave a good impression. Celeste was ready to head out, dressed in her navy blue tailcoat, with the matching blue top hat with a pink bow just a short time after the radio announcements had ended.
Celeste quickly headed out to the park, making her way to the fountain in the center after parking her bright yellow Camero in the shade of a nearby parking lot. Even though it was still early, there were plenty of tourists. Celeste bounded from one group to another, cheerfully greeting all of them, and captivating their attention with singing, dancing, or some entertaining interactive skit or magic trick. She tried to impress everyone she met, and managed to collect some tips as she moved from person to person along the outskirts of the park.
(Open for Interaction)

 

[Jakiro]

Amalia Lombardi
Sophie Hayward
​

Sophie seemed to be in a rather chipper mood that morning, humming a melodious tune as she all but bounced down the walkway that leads to the gates of Maple Park. A few passersby had recognized the blondie along the way, greeting 'hi's' and 'hello's' with her to which she reciprocated with an infectious smile. If this were few years back, she would've nauseated at the sight of her acting so happily and carefree, but what Amalia didn't know back then is the difficulty of becoming an undercover 'specialist'. You can't fake Calculus 3 the same way you can't fake being a valley girl from Southern California. You had to become all the things you had to portray, and then some. Younger Amalia didn't realize that however, though she only wished she did at that time.

Her profession made her day-to-day life nearly indescribable. She went through every single emotion daily. Fear, joy, sadness, amazement, anger, you name it. Paranoia was the only constant. It was a toxin that eats you up from the inside out, leaving nothing but an emotionless husk that only cares for its well-being. Amalia was lucky enough to not end up like so, in fact, it pushed her to take leaps and bounds to ensure her real identity and profession remain a secret, but that doesn't mean she can't feel its effects anymore. It was days like these, a 'sabbatical' of sorts, that prevents Amalia from taking the dive, and so she makes sure to soak in every moment of it.

A few minutes had passed, and she was now within the boundaries of Maple Park. The park itself wasn't as large as she hoped it to be, but she (begrudgingly) had to give the city's government credit, the place did a good job of invoking a sense of peace and serenity to those who enter it. The delicate chirping of the birds seemed to fit in neatly with the well-kept greenery around the park, further accentuating its main centerpiece: a very large, very expensive looking fountain. There in its middle a marble statue of the city's founder in a relaxed, 'arms-wide' pose as if welcoming all those who entered the park. Sophie idly wondered if it meant to resemble those archaic Greek statues she'd seen from photos in the internet, before she was nearly knocked over by a wave of tourists that were all headed at a certain direction.

They all seemed to flock to a particular street performer ( Crystal Cali ) whose entertaining acts reminded Sophie of the Circus for some reason. The performer seemed to be multifaceted in terms of talent: she can sing, dance, and even perform magic tricks, but Sophie wasn't the type of person to be easily impressed. Using her silver tongue, she managed to get past the sea of tourists blocking her way, and into the general vicinity of the performer.

'A newly-opened park means lots of people, and the more people there are, the bigger her potential earnings become. Clever.' She still wasn't impressed, or anything. Sophie wanted to know the extent of what 'Celeste' could do, and quite frankly she has all the time and money to do just that, she just needed to do a little convincing.

"Ooh, can you like, do magic tricks and stuff?" She tilted her head to the side, eyes filled with a slight curiosity. Her designer bag hung loosely from her shoulder as she shifted her weight a bit.

 

[Veltsu VI]

Hanah Solo and Fayette Vahdin

Hanah and Fayette where walking at park when they stopped to watch street performer's show( Crystal Cali ), Fayette pickpocketed little bit of money from crowd and from young woman who had asked do magic tricks ( Jakiro ), when they left from crowd Fayette gived stoled money to Hanah and they continued walk at park.
"Do we have enough to shopping now, Fay?" Hanah whispered to Fayette.
"Yes, we should have sister." Fayette nodded. "Can we go look pond?"
Hanah nodded and girls headed to pond.​

 

[Crystal Cali]

Celestia Bird​

Celeste was surrounded on all sides by people now, though she didn't miss the question about magic tricks. She turns to the person who asked about magic tricks, in time to see someone suspicious ( Veltsu VI ) making her way out of the crowd. Celeste made note of the girl, but wasn't about to break up a show to go running after the girl. That was a job for Arcana, anyways. Celeste offers the other woman ( Jakiro ) a smile, and bows elegantly, taking off her top hat as she does. "Why, of course I can, Madame," she says in a smooth voice. As she goes to straighten up again, she twirls her hat and a group of colorful butterflies fly out and disperse around the crowd. Many of the people watching make impressed "oohs" as Celeste place the hat on top of her head again. "Perhaps you would like to see one up close. First, though, may I ask your name?"

 

[SirGrey]

Owen Wright
​

"Alright," Owen simply said as the man takki he just collided into went along his merry way, though he did seem a bit shaken by the incident. the detective just sighed, placing his cig back in his mouth and his hands back in his pockets. He did feel guilty over what happened, but feel worse that he had let himself get distracted so easily. It made Owen less like Holmes and more like Clouseau. Between puffs of smokes, Owen saw glimpses of a large group of people in the distance.

As he went further into the park, he saw that a street performer Crystal Cali had taken up residence, a crowd Veltsu VI Jakiro having formed to what her little show. Owen stood and watched from a distance for a while. He had nothing against crowds, he just prefers not to part of them. Maybe it's a personal space thing, maybe it's a fella in a trench coat and smoking problem would stick out too much. Owen really never gave it much thought. He admitted the tricks were amusing but magicians and the like never really captured his interest.

Stamping his cig out, the detective goes to a bench still in eye and earshot of the corwd. He pulls a book from his inner trench coat pocket, the spin and cover showing some wear from having been stored in there. Owen made it a point of pride to keep books on his person. He never really took to phones, he used for work and that was it. Jumping into the book, the whoops of the crowds seemed to fade.

 

[takki]

[border]Daniel McVereDaniel finally sat on the bench near the bridge that's facing on the fountain. It was still early, but there were already a number of people walking around the park. But in his sight, there was a crowd of people ( Jakiro )( Veltsu VI ) surrounding a street performer ( Crystal Cali ). As he observed the performer, she was pretty good and also does magic tricks. Daniel wondered that he should've spent 30 minutes on the park ever since he came here.As he gazed past the crowd of people, he saw the man he bumped into while he was going towards on where he is now. He tried to avoid eye contact with him since Daniel thought that man looked scary.[/border]

 

[aliara.s]

aaron mclendon​

As much as Aaron liked the DJ, he always missed his morning report. Aaron would never be up at 6am. No, he was more of an 11am kind of guy on a good day. But today was a special day. It was his little sister's birthday, and he wanted to do something nice for her. So at 6am, he forced himself to get out of bed and start his day. After he was showered and shaved, he trudged downstairs and started making Juliet's birthday breakfast. He wanted to give himself plenty of time to cook everything properly and run to the jewelry store to pick up her present before she woke up. His mom would be so proud of him for finally being nice to his sister for once. They always squabbled because she disagreed with him being Justice every night.

After making her breakfast, Aaron quietly snuck out of the apartment that he shared with his family and started walking to the jewelry store. I might as well cut through the city. No use in taking the backstreets, he thought to himself. He turned sharply on one heel and headed for central city.

As he started to come near the park, a large crowd of people were surrounded a street performing showing off her magic tricks. He stopped to watch just long enough to see two little ratty looking girls pickpocketing audience members. A twang of pity shot through him. They were in a bad shape, and looked like they really needed the money. Stealing isn't the way to go about things, though, he sighed, and tore himself away from the enthralling performance to go chase after the girls. He found them lingering by the pond, and placed a firm hand on the smaller one's shoulder. "You know that stealing is wrong, don't you?"

 

[Jakiro]

Amalia Lombardi
Sophie Hayward
​

...She hid the butterflies in her hat. Amalia wasn't exactly amazed by the simple trick, but it was a decent start, she supposed. The people around her had already been so enthralled by Celeste's ( Crystal Cali ) performance that they failed to realize the predicament they've set upon themselves. Pickpockets and thieves thrive in situations like this one: a crowd so distracted, that they'd never realize the empty pockets and lost possessions until it was too late. She'd been on both sides of the coin before; you had to start somewhere after all, and for the daughter of the bloodthirsty Alonzo Lombardi it was basic thievery out of all things. So when someone ( Veltsu VI ) had accidentally 'bumped' into her, she knew she'd been robbed. With a quick check of her pockets Amalia's assumptions were all but confirmed, her money was no longer there.

If this was any other situation, then 'Sophie' would've panicked a bit, before making a beeline to the nearest police station, but Amalia had other plans. Besides, her family has all the money in the world, and she was her father's favorite. She'll deal with the thief later on. For now, she wants to see what this 'Celeste' can do.

"I'm Sophie! Sophie..." On second thought, why not make the most of things right now? She came up with a very crazy idea, just as she was about to introduce herself to the magician. In an attempt to look relaxed, she slouched her posture a bit before putting her hands inside her jeans' pockets mid-sentence, but that was the time when she 'realized'. "W-wait, I think I've been robbed." It didn't sound as good as Amalia thought it would be, but she didn't care. She patted down on her jeans in a frantic search for the money that wasn't there, which devolved into her turning her bag inside out if anything else got stolen too. This caused others around her to do the same thing as well, a few others realizing that they had been robbed too if the curses and loud swears weren't obvious enough.

"That was all of my money..." Exhaling a shaky breath, she cast a brief, but sullen look towards 'Celeste' before the ground seemed like a more interesting thing to look at. Pacing around aimlessly, Sophie appeared to be on the verge of turning on the waterworks, when in actuality she has no idea where this plan is actually headed to, or why she is acting in such a way. But today was a rare sabbatical, so she can do whatever she wishes to do; but being bored was not one of them.

 

[Veltsu VI]

Hanah Solo and Fayette Vahdin
aliara.s

Fayette and Hanah nodded to each other shortly, before Fayette started fake crying and yelled. "TOUCHER!!"
They had used this escaping couple times before, when someone had caught them in public place. Idea would be to make one that get touched show up as victim. When people would turn against person that they accused, Fayette would run away and Hanah would vanish in crowd.​

 

[Crystal Cali]

Celestia Bird​

Celeste felt a twinge of anger as her suspicion that the two girls in rags had caused trouble were confirmed, but her expression remained neutral. "Oh dear, that is certainly no good," Celeste says in a dramatically sympathetic tone. "But, not to worry, Miss Sophie, I will assist you in retrieving what was lost. You see, not only am I a magician, I am also a bit of a psychic." Celeste hopped up onto a nearby rock, with most of the audience watching her, while some people looked towards the girls who were shouting. "Now, now, I wonder if that has anything to do with our situation," she says as she takes her hat off with a flourish, using the complicated motion to hide something inside when no one would see. "I bet the spirits will tell me," she says, and gives her hat a shake. A small stream of water shoots out of her hat, seemingly confirming Celeste's "suspicion." "The spirits tell me that we will find our answer by a source of water, and look, there is a lake right over there. Perhaps our predicament does have to do with the scene unfolding. Let's go see, shall we?" Celeste leads the group over to the lake, all the while doing her best to keep the crowd's attention on her in order to minimize the possibility that the crowd will get too caught up in the girls' diversion.
Veltsu VI Jakiro aliara.s

 

[takki]

[border]Daniel McVereDaniel almost fell asleep. He was looking at the clear blue morning sky and he didn't actually realize he was staring at it for couple of minutes until he bumped his left temple on the bench. He felt pain and his senses were back to normal again. Effects of a non-sleeper, he says. He stood up on the bench and was walking his way out of the park circumference until someone shouted. Daniel could hear it from a distance. He observed the street performer, and the crowd dispersed into different directions. There was one other girl with her that was acting worried.

"Don't tell me..." Daniel muttered. He saw the two girls go close and watch the street performer. For a short moment, the little girl was holding something. Something not big enough for her palms to fit. He was pretty sure she weren't holding something when they came here. In other words, they were stealing. He had no energy to run and keep his senses up, so he decided to might be useless to catch them, until a boy stopped the little girl.

<Open>[/border]

 

[Jakiro]

Amalia Lombardi
Sophie Hayward
​

"Y-you'd do that? Thanks." To others, it would seem like Sophie is taking a moment to blink the wetness away from her tears before continuing on, while in reality she's taking note of how Celeste ( Crystal Cali ) seemed to hang on to her act (even in this kind of situation, she might add). If it weren't for Amalia's sense of self-control, then she would have broken character and rolled her eyes at the magician's insistent display of showmanship, but she was better than that. At the mention of the word 'psychic' however did Sophie prop a hand up to her right hip, using the other to pinch the bridge of her nose in annoyance-- although to others, it seemed like she did it for a completely different reason.

A loud scream from the pond took all of their attention, coming from a place nearby the pond. It seemed to have come from a pair of two unassuming girls ( Veltsu VI ) Sophie saw that a boy ( aliara.s ) not older than her held onto the smaller one for god-knows-what reason. From Celeste's subtle expression of anger upon viewing these two did Sophie take a guess that they were the culprits responsible; the magician was the only one earlier positioned in a way to take a good view of the crowd and those moving around in it, and the two girls have the same 'deer-in-headlights' expression after being confronted by the boy, so the possibility was definitely open. Sophie had no idea where the water came from though.

She didn't really catch a glimpse of her pickpocket, so for all Sophie knew this was just a big coincidence that fate had decided to play upon them all, but she'd play along. Nothing better to do anyways.

She followed the magician's lead, her face a mix of anger and confusion before turning to Celeste now that they're in close proximity of the three. "So, what is happening here," And what do you intend on doing? She asked in a hushed tone, refraining from speaking the last bit of her sentence.

 

[Veltsu VI]

Hanah Solo and Fayette Vahdin

Hanah started to really get worried about situation; magician ( Crystal Cali ) was keeping crowd away from them and boy who had caught them ( aliara.s ) still held on Fayette's shoulder. Hanah could see that Fayette was at edge of real panic, as normally she would be running away already. Hanah kept her hands near pockets where her revolvers are, she had taken those to keep themselves safe in their neighborhood and as last plan to shoplifting if they didn't get money to buy and shoplifting without guns would go south.

When she was already going to put her hand in pocket, one woman from crowd( Jakiro ) walked to them and asked what is happening.

"He touched my legs." Fayette said shaking for fear. There wasn't anything what she could do and she knew what Hanah was going to do. If her sister draw her guns, there wasn't way to get out park at same way that they came in park.​

 

[aliara.s]

Veltsu VI​

Aaron couldn't belive what he was hearing. "I didn't touch your legs, you filthy little cretin!" He tightened his grip on the little one's shoulders, digging his fingers into her flesh. "And I won't let you go until you give back what you stole. This can be easy, or hard. It's up to you. Don't make this a hard day for us both." He spat.

He felt his anger bubbling over. I shouldn't be letting this get to me....He sighed. This might've been Juliet if I hadn't been there for her... He spun the little girl around quickly and stared deeply into her eyes. "Look, meet me halfway. If you give everyone back their money, maybe I can help you out a little. Do you need food? I don't have a lot, but I can spare some for you. Please. Let me help you."

 

[Veltsu VI]

Hanah Solo and Fayette Vahdin

Fayette let out cry of pain when boy's ( aliara.s ) grib tightened, it was last straw to Hanah and she draw her left hand revolver and aimed it to boy.
"LET GO OF MY SISTER!" Hanah yelled to boy, keeping eye on woman( Jakiro ) that was nearly to see if she would need her other revolver too.

Hanah's revolver wasn't pretty, instead it looked like it had been maded by multiple guns and scrap metals (as it was), but it was loaded and Hanah did keep it steady aimed to boy. ​

 

[takki]

[border] He caught a glimpse of metal at a distance. It shone on his eyes. As he blocked most of the light with his left, his eyes widened and he thought it was the one of the last things he needed to see in this park, now that it's crowded and newly opened. "PUT THE GUN DOWN!" Daniel shouted as loud as he could. He was a hundred meters away from the girl with the gun and the boy. He could like heroically run as fast as he could and wound the girl's arm that's holding the gun using a dagger-ruler, a weapon of his creation.

Daniel couldn't do that now. He neither have his weapon with him nor his energy. From just running the circumference of the park, he was drained out and can barely run or keep one of his senses to normal work. He'd have to see this how it goes. Everyone that heard his voice would notice the scene.

aliara.s Jakiro Veltsu VI Crystal Cali SirGrey J Johannes [/border]

 

[Johannes]

Lucas Artz

Mood: Interested
Location: Maple Park
Tags: No one in particular

As Noah walked past the park, he could notice some things going. What looked like a performer was going around so Noah assumed most of the activity was a street performance; nothing to pay attention to. Until a man shouted for someone to lay down their gun. A gun in a public place? Now that's an interesting way to begin the day. Noah crept over behind a tree where he could see the action under some cover. He could see a younger male confronting two girls. The older of the two held the gun and seemed defensive of the smaller one. At the head of the crowd were two women, one was there street performer. The man who shouted looked like an investigator with his trench coat and attire. With what looks to be a scuffle and the potential vigilantes in his midst, Noah decided it was best to remain hidden behind the tree and amongst the foliage.

 

[Tori Bradley]

Jonathan Voltaire
The wind rustled Jonathan's already tousled hair as he strolled down the misty city streets. All around him, people walked back and forth, most of them talking quietly into a cellphone. Many were businessman off to work, some were teenagers on their way to school. The streets were mostly quiet, having not yet hit rush hour. Soon enough the tourists would be bustling through the city, scoping out the best points of the city. Jonathan, though, had a much different day ahead of him. His gym was closed for the day. The official reason was maintenance. The truth was that the owner had...prior engagements.

Jonathan looked both ways to watch for cars before stuffing his hands into his pockets and crossing the intersection leading into Maple Park. He had risen early that morning, as he did every morning, and learned of its opening from the DJ. Jonathan, though he didn't know the man, considered him an informant of sorts. After all, Jonathan picked up most of his work from the announcements on the daily 6:00 radio.

Crossing under the archway that announced his entrance into the park, the seemingly inconspicuous man reached up to fix his collar, leisurely strolling alone the cobblestone path set into the grass. Joggers ran with music playing in their ears, college students sat and talked, families played around with their dogs. It was a seemingly normal morning.

Until a shout shattered the peaceful silence of the morning.

Picking up his speed, Voltaire rounded a corner around a patch of trees. An increasingly frantic crowd gathered around a small koi pond, their troubled and frightened eyes focused on the scene in front of them. Two girls ( Veltsu VI ), stood in front of the pond. The older one had a gun leveled with a young man's ( aliara.s ) chest. Beside them stood a woman ( Crystal Cali ) who looked like a street performer and another ( Jakiro ) who looked distraught as she searched her bag. The shout had come from a jogger ( takki ) sitting on a bench across the courtyard. On a bench not far from him sat a serious-looking man ( SirGrey ) with a cigarette in his hand, a trench coat covering his tall frame. The jogger looked stricken at the sight before him, while the other man looked speculative. Indifferent.

Jonathan crossed the courtyard, sidling up to the scene casually. Speaking would only garner a worse reaction. In situations like these, it was generally best to approach quietly. As he moved closer, he noticed a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. A man ( J Johannes ) slipped behind a tree, but Jonathan could feel his eyes scanning over the crowd. Voltaire kept moving until he stood just behind the man at which the weapon was pointed, his body poised to move the second the it was needed. ​

 

[SirGrey]

Owen Wright
​

Owen was devouring the last few pages of the book when he heard the jogger takki he crashed into earlier yell something about someone with a gun. Looking up from reading he saw the street performer Crystal Cali with a woman looking frantically through her bag Jakiro . There was a pair that looked like sisters Veltsu VI , the older holding a gun while the other looked scared. The younger one had been grabbed by a man aliara.s of considerable size and a face of rather pure anger. Sighing, Owen crammed his book into his trench coat pocket, before walking over to the standoff. His walk was a rather casual one a hand in pocket, while the other held a cigarette, his speed being that of an average jaunty stroll. "Well," he said in an almost joking manner as he approached the three, "This seems to quite a well-done mess, though wonder what you'll all trying to do" he continued his voice sound he was observing rather than talking to them. "You need to put the gun away you won't we have this thing called a mobile phone the minute we hear gun shots police will be here like flies on shit," he said looking the older women before looking at the man, now with what seemed to be sympathetic, "I'd apologise for grabbing the young women, I know of been for reason but it might not have been a good reason. Taking a drag on his cig, making sure to blow the smoke away from the child, Owen says, "I'd give the stuff back whatever it was it can't be worth this much trouble and I'm sure you can steal things that will bring you less trouble in the future".